Don't Give Up
by Spannerspoon
Summary: "You don't give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away." Rose hadn't given up before... but standing on Dårlig Ulv Stranden, would she give up now? Rose-centric drabble, Post Doomsday. Could be classed as a companion piece to Hand to Hold if you squint.


**Wow…okay. So I've apparently been bitten by the writing bug. 2 stories in one night?! I should really go to bed BUT THE WRITING GODS MUST BE APPEASED!**

***ahem* apparently. So this little drabble was also inspired by a quote that floated into my head then opened the door for a rabid plot bunny to latch on. Enjoy!**

**Don't Give Up**

"_You don't give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away."_

She hadn't given up in the chip shop. She hadn't given in as the time vortex raged in her head. She hadn't given up in that dark dungeon of the Torchwood estate. Nor on Krop Tor, or Dame Kelly Road. She hadn't given up on the spaceship of Madame Du Pompadour, although after five and a half hours she had come close.

She came right back to him after he sent her away on Satellite 5; and again at Torchwood 1. She had never given up on him or the life she had chosen.

"_Once the breach collapses, that's it." He hissed. "You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"_

_Rose calmly gazed back into his blazing eyes. "I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you."_

_The Doctor stared at her, dumbfounded; unable to comprehend how much she was willing to give to up, just to be with him. Her soft words brought him back to their present. "So what can I do to help?"_

But standing on that cold, windswept beach, as the wind roars on the worst day of her life; Rose Tyler almost gave up.

"Quite right too."

The words said with a smile, but she can see how his eyes are glistening wetly. He's hurting as much as she is because they both know she can't come back. Not without two universes colliding and shattering. No, instead it's two people. She has to do what's right, and he can't run away from his responsibility to protect the universes – no matter how much he wants to.

"And I suppose… if it's my last chance to say it…"

Oh god, and it is. These words, they're so final. If she accepts them, does that mean she's finally given up? He has. She can see it in his eyes. The pain of loss and despair is clear in those deep chocolate orbs. It's clear in the downward cant of his shoulders, in the silent tears threatening to fall. Her own eyes have lost the fight to hold back her tears, spilling down her cheeks in a messy cascade. There is so much sorrow in this parting. But she promised him forever. She won't let this happen, she will take her stand and she won't let him run away. She can't. She loves him.

"Rose Tyler-"

He fades away mid-sentence and she breaks. She sobs into the arms of her mother on that cold beach in Norway. She feels numb. She feels lost and she has no idea what to do. It's almost like she's back in the Powell Estate; the Sycorax are invading, the Doctor is gone and she's at home and useless. But, this time… there is hope. Rose freezes in her mother's arms as the wind suddenly cuts through a narrow gulley. It doesn't roar. It howls.

"Dårlig Ulv Stranden." She whispers, her tears suddenly stopping.

"What's that sweetheart?" Jackie asks, holding her daughter tight, trying to keep her together.

"Dårlig." Rose leans back from her mother. "It's Norwegian for bad." There's a hint of a small barely daring to form at the corner of her mouth. "This place translates as Bad Wolf Bay."

"I know sweetheart." Jackie sighs, exasperated. "The back of bleedin' beyond this is."

"Bad Wolf Bay." She states, and hope is starting to build in her eyes. It couldn't be coincidence. It wasn't a fluke. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there. And suddenly her words from long ago fly back to her.

"_I thought it was a warning. Maybe it's the opposite. Maybe it's a message. The same words, written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It's a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there." _

And Mickey; loyal, brave Mickey, asking her the question she'd missed.

"_But if it's a message, what's it saying?"_

Her delight back then was nothing compared to the euphoria she was feeling now.

"_It's telling me I can get back!"_

If Bad Wolf's reach could stretch across the void and into Pete's world, then that meant Rose's did. And if Rose had already done it once… she could do it again. The Doctor needed her. Needed her to save him just as she had then. He needed her to free him from the darkness he felt he was. He needed her help him balance on the razor's edge he walked. He needed her hand to hold and that made things very simple. She would get back to him. She wouldn't give up; she would take a stand when everyone else told her to run away. She promised him forever and she was never going to leave him.

Light years away, in an ancient past, the connection is made by a man with a stone arm; and then, as a broken Time Lord stands in a bazaar, on a distant world orbiting an alien star, the words of an oracle echo back from the past and ring in his ears. He stares in a horrified blend of wonder and fear at a message that could tear his world apart.

"_She is returning."_

**I always liked the idea of Bad Wolf being more kickass than the Doctor expected, but felt the writers just kind of… dropped it – nice twist in the 50****th****, but I felt she could do so much more! So it is our solemn duty as fan fiction writers and as Whovians to do our duty and let her! Hehe, saying that I do have a multi-chapter (shocking I know!) fic planned and waiting to be finished staring the lovely Bad Wolf, so looking forward to writing that.**

**Hope you enjoyed and let me know by dropping me a review!**

**Love and Hugs**

**Spannerspoon out.**


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